[CentOS] Re: are RPMForge and EPEL compatible?

Stephen John Smoogen wrote:

>> The point is that as an end user, I want a sensible way to deal with
>> multiple repositories that _don't_ collaborate.  After all, if everyone
>> agreed on policies we wouldn't need any third party repositories at all.
> 
> Ok the problem field is that you have N different repositories, using
> M different guidelines, using O different compile flags, and P
> different filesystem layouts.

The constraint is simply that you do not replace any file/library with 
one that is incompatible.  The Sun people like to claim that you can run 
anything that ever ran on Solaris on subsequent versions so the problem 
space isn't as impossible as you make it seem - it is more a matter of 
respecting interfaces and backwards compatibility.  But my point is that 
I don't want to be forced to use a repository that always follows this 
constraint.  Sometimes compatibility is what you want, sometimes you 
want something different, and you need to be able to manage both.

> The best you could possibly do is not
> have packages at all but keep each package in a dmg file and let the
> ld fight it out over who gets executed today... but that would seem to
> be a different OS.

Yes, that would make Linux as difficult to maintain as a Mac.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com